


Stress

by Zoya113



Category: The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals - Team StarKid
Genre: Dad Hidgens, F/M, Fluff, this story is educational lmao
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-07
Updated: 2019-05-07
Packaged: 2020-02-27 16:17:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18742588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zoya113/pseuds/Zoya113
Summary: Hidgens gives Emma some helpful advice about why she shouldn’t push herself so hard and makes sure Paul takes care of her





	Stress

“Hey, I’m here. Is she okay?” Paul pushed open the door to Hidgens’ office. The professor was standing by the open window with his papers and Emma was slumped in his big office chair, grimacing. She looked pale and tired.  
“I’m fine!” Emma snapped, spinning in the chair to glare at the Professor.  
“She’s alright now,” the professor paced over to properly invite Paul into his office, gesturing for him to take a seat across from Emma. “I was just giving her back some work I had marked when she dropped everything and fainted. She’s feeling much better now though, isn’t she?”  
“Yes,” Emma grumbled reluctantly.  
“Wow, that sounds bad,” Paul gave a sympathetic frown to Emma but she just glared at him before looking the other way.  
“Pale as a ghost,” Hidgens confirmed.  
Emma was angrily rifling through Hidgens drawers for a distraction.  
“Don’t do that please, dear,” he leant over her shoulder to shut his draws and handed her a stress ball he had on his desk instead.  
“I’m fine!” She squished it between her hands before throwing it on the floor like a child having a tantrum. “I have a test to study for, am I all good to go?”  
Hidgens shot Paul a look that Emma couldn’t see. “There’s a rather interesting Biological process you might be interested in Paul, it’s Seyle’s General Adaption Syndrome and it looks into how the body processes stress.”  
Emma let out a groan, crossing her arms and shutting her eyes.  
“I haven’t heard of it,” Paul watched Emma’s behaviour with affection, she hated being forced to slow down but someone had to look after her health and she certainly wasn’t doing that herself.  
“It’s a three stage process that proposes a theory on how humans deal with stress. The first step is Alarm Reaction, it’s when the body actually notices the stressor, for example, getting assigned a big project,” for added emphasis he picked up the paper he was holding before.  
Emma spun the other way in the desk chair with a petulant look but Hidgens slowly turned the chair back around, sliding the papers over to her.  
“The second stage is Resistance, the body releases certain hormones that help people cope with the identified stressor, it helps the body fight the stressor by, oh, I don’t know, letting them stay up later to study or letting them skip a few meals here and there.”  
“She has been staying up very late recently to work on her assignment,” he smiled gently at Emma to suggest he could tell just how hard she had been working and that he admired it.  
In return she growled at him, “I thought you were on my side Paul!”  
“Let the professor talk,” he advised, picking up the stress ball she had thrown and handing it back to her.  
It shut her down albeit reluctantly, it was like a dog chewing on a bone.  
“Now Emma, would you like to tell Paul yourself what the third stage is?”  
“Don’t know,” she lied, looking like she was about to throw the ball again.  
“Yes you do, come on. We learnt this not long ago,” he put a hand on her shoulder.  
Emma grumbled and rolled her eyes. “It’s called Exhaustion,” she informed him.  
“There we are!” He cheered for her. “She pays very good attention in class,” Hidgens complimented her.  
Emma not-so-subtly covered her mouth with her hand and Paul could tell she was smiling.  
“And so what’s that stage like, Hidgens?”  
“It’s when the body runs out of those hormones, it leaves the immune system suppressed and makes someone much more likely to get sick.” He had moved to stand behind the chair Emma sat in as it implying she was the example herself this time.  
“We get it, we get it. I stayed up too late and I got tired, am I good to go? Why’d you bring Paul?” She spoke with annoyance at her defeat, it was like someone waved the white flag for her.  
“So that next time you’re up until-“ he paused and pulled out his phone. “Four AM, he’ll tell you to get to sleep.”  
Emma whacked her palm up to her forehead, groaning.  
“I may be old but I know that emails have time stamps,” he tucked his phone back into his jacket pocket. “And in addition to that Paul, I’d like you to drive her home.”  
Emma’s jaw dropped. “But I have work to do! I can drive myself home later!”  
“For starters, the work you have to do is get some rest and secondly!” He ended with a shocked look. “We both know you don’t drive! Don’t even try to convince me with an argument like that!”  
Emma tossed her head back with a bothered groan.  
“But if you do have time you should revise what we learnt. Short term memory has a lesser chance of being transferred into long term memory when the thought process is interrupted, and I do consider passing out as being interrupted.” He then pointed a finger at Paul, “but don’t let her revise at night. Make sure she goes to bed.”  
“Got it, come on Em,” he held out his hand for her to hold but she refused.  
“This is unbelievable. Tell him he’s being ridiculous, Paul!”  
“Thank you for looking after her, Professor.”  
He smiled. “I’ll let you go now, I have another lecture to get to.”  
Emma sighed. “Thanks, Professor,” she begrudgingly admitted in the end, she moved to collect her pile of textbooks off Hidgen’s table put he placed a hand on them.  
“You can collect these from my office on Monday. You are to take the weekend off. Make sure she does, Paul.” Before she could whine he opened his mouth to speak again. “I may not be able to stop you from going to work but I can stop you studying things you don’t need to be studying. You can trust I’ll be paying you a visit at work just to make sure you aren’t pushing yourself like that again.”  
She wanted to come up with some sort of retort but Paul patted her on the back. “You heard him Emma, come on. Time for us to go home. I’ll cook you something for lunch and then you can get some rest, huh?”  
“You can’t cook for shit. Don’t touch my shoulder we’re breaking up.”  
“She’s just saying that,” Paul assured the professor as he ushered Emma out of his office.  
“No I’m not. And Professor you’re dead to me.”  
“Emma!” Paul hissed. “You can’t say that!” He turned back to Hidgens.  
“She means thank you,” Paul corrected her.  
The professor chuckled fondly as he watched Emma stomp out of the room. “I know.”


End file.
